The federally subsidized 418-unit Brewington Oaks apartment complex in Rockford is 70 percent full, 30 points more than a year and a half ago.

Gorman & Co., the Oregon, Wis.-based company planning to redevelop the Ziock/Amerock building into a hotel and conference center in downtown Rockford, manages Brewington, Jane Addams Park Apartments for the disabled and other mostly single-family homes and townhouses for the Rockford Housing Authority.

It has filled Brewington primarily through referrals from Rockford social services agencies and word of mouth, said Jim Busse, regional manager of Gorman & Co.

But as the number of residents rises — from 156 to 280 in the past 18 months — at the property in the 500 block of Seminary Street, arrests have risen as well.

“There are too many incidents at one location,” Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson said a few days after April’s Compstat meeting, a monthly review of crime statistics. “There’s too much criminal activity.”

Arrests in March were mostly for drug and trespassing violations, Epperson said.

Through March of this year, there were 19 arrests at Brewington, compared with 34 in all of 2013. Those figures seem especially high when you consider that all of Brewington’s residents are at least 50 years old or disabled.

RHA’s three family housing complexes are occupied by residents of all ages, and police records show arrests there seem to be more on pace with last year. There were eight arrests at Orton Keyes in the first three months this year, versus 49 in all of 2013; 15 at Blackhawk Courts in the first three months this year, versus 75 last year, and 22 at Fairgrounds Valley in the first three months this year, versus 87 last year.

One reason for the increase is that residents of Brewington who are mentally ill can be more prone to drug abuse issues, said Ron Clewer, chief executive officer of the RHA.

“We do well at providing supportive environments for the physically disabled,” Clewer said. “We are not doing well for those with behavioral health challenges. We need to improve here.”

Stephanie Sanders, who has lived at Brewington for seven years, said Tuesday, April 15, that there are “too many rude, crazy folks” and “too many young people who don’t live here who don’t have respect.”

The RHA’s long-term plan is for Brewington to become a property for seniors only, Clewer said.

The other unsettling part about the arrests throughout all RHA properties is that three of four people arrested at the properties in 2013 don’t live there.

“A lot of people who don’t live here be making trouble,” said Rosie Simmons, who has lived at Brewington for four years.

As we talked, she pointed out a young man whose friend or relative had moved in recently. She said that she’d seen him put a wedge in a door to gain access inside Brewington without having to go through security at the front desk.

“He’s just always hanging around,” she said.

Clewer said RHA officials are working to educate residents that they shouldn’t let troublemakers visit them. Eviction is a last-resort consequence.